Some ex-volunteers for the Mercy Welfare Society have accused the president of using child labour as well as abusing inmates at an unregistered home run by the society.

"The children at this home were told to pack drinks for a well-known beverage company, make wires and sew buttons for baju melayu," former volunteer G Rajasingam told the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

The home, which includes the mentally retarded and the aged, is run by the society's president Indra Shan and her son Daniel Paul who is the society's vice-president.

Volunteers also told Suhakam that Indra would bring children from families of low-income areas and entice them to the home with promises of education and employment.

According to the Child Welfare Act, employment of juveniles below the age of 18 constitutes an offence.

Rajasingam, who is a lawyer, said the 28 children at the home located at Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, were also abused and left to starve.

"Some of them had been beaten with wire and also television aerials," added Rajasingam, who said that the children ranged from ages six to 15.

Scabies

The issue of the home gained publicity when the Sun daily reported on July 13 that 16 children were rescued from the home after the same volunteers exposed the alleged abuse of the children.

During the two-hour meeting with Suhakam, another volunteer Annie George told commissioners Prof Hamdan Adnan and Lee Lam Thye that the children were often not given proper meals.

"These children are always hungry and never had any clean clothes; that is why they suffer from scabies and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that they never bathed," George said.

"They had to live with some of the older inmates, most of whom were mentally unsound. How can children be kept with these adults?" she asked.

Children who complained would also be beaten up or put in solitary confinement in a dark room. Some were even pulled out of kindergarten when they complained of hunger to their teacher, George added.

The volunteers later showed the commissioners the scabies (which developed from unhygienic living conditions) on the hands and legs of six-year-old Thiagu and his sister Letchumi. The two and their sister Logeswari have since been taken out of the home.

No proper accounting

When contacted, Indra, the president of the society, was reluctant to answer to the allegations.

"It is utter rubbish, these allegations. These people are not even volunteers, they are just visitors. I am not interested in being brought into this issue. We have 26 children here and they are well taken care of and they always get good grades in school.

"I am not interested in all this, if you need any more details just call the Welfare Department," Indra said.

Anthony Joseph, who formerly worked with the society as an accountant, revealed that the home never had a proper accounting system.

"We have a lot of money coming in because of the publicity she gets but there is no proper management of money. All the receipts have never gone into the bank," he said.

Joseph also alleged that the aged inmates were not allowed outside the home, adding that the inmates would have their identity cards taken away.

"She also never paid the inmates for any work done there," he claimed, adding that an aged inmate had suffered a stroke but was placed in a bed for a week without medical attention until he died.

At the end of the meeting commissioner Hamdan announced that he would be calling on Indra, the Welfare Department, the Registrar of Societies as well as the police for a meeting next Friday.

"We want to make sure justice is done and for that we need proper action to be taken by the authorities," he said.